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I have a few clocks in my house; the old wind-up kind. But I haven’t wound them since I began podcasting. They made too much noise.
It wasn’t just the ticking of the clocks, it was the chiming of their bells. I’d be sitting there trying to record a podcast episode and if it wasn’t the phone ringing or the doorbell, it was the clocks gonging away.
And believe it or not, this has something to do with the etymology of the word clock.
Years ago I remember hearing about a child who’d grown up reading the time from digital clocks so that they’d never learned to read the time on a clock that had hands to mark off the hours.
Later when I had my own children—in a house with a bunch of ticking, chiming clocks—I was surprised one day when I asked my daughter to tell me the time. She was standing right beside the digital clock on the nightstand. She looked around and evidently didn’t even recognize that thing with numbers glowing on it to be a clock.
The word clock appeared first in English in the 9th century but at first it didn’t mean a device for measuring time. At that point in English it was still hanging on to an older meaning that had already evolved in Latin into the timepiece meaning.
At that point clock meant “bell.”
It reappeared in English in 1371 as a word that had moved from Latin to French before showing up in English and by this point it did mean a machine that counted off the hours.
It was the fact that this machine informed people of the time by clanging away on a bell that got it to be called by the same word that a bell itself was called.
One of the clocks in my house is what you might call a grandfather clock.
Clock enthusiasts would call it a long case clock.
It evolved because clocks were not very accurate until some smart person figured out how to use a long pendulum to keep regular spaces between the ticks.
At first this meant that clocks were set on shelves high on the wall with a hole cut in the shelf for the pendulum to hang through.
Later people thought it might be prettier to enclose the swinging pendulum in a high case. I suppose that kept if from inaccuracies induced by small children and dog’s tails as well.
Grandfather clocks only started to be called grandfather clocks after a popular song came out in 1876. It was by Henry Work and called Grandfather’s Clock and told the tale of a high case clock that kept perfect time for 90 years but stopped when the owner died.
參考譯文：
我家有幾隻鍾，是老式的上發條的那種。但自從我做了播客（一種讓用戶自由地在互聯網上發布文件，全新的自助式廣播）以後，嫌他們吵，就很少用了。
naxiezhongbujinjinfachudidasheng，haiyouqiaojibaoshideshengyin。wozuozaijializhunbeiluzhibokequezongshibeiganrao，bushidianhuaxiangjiushimenlingxiang，huozhegancuishinaozhonglingshengdazuo。
不管信不信，這跟單詞鍾（clock）的詞源有些關係。
從前我聽聞孩子們從小用慣了電子表，以至於他們不會讀有分針時針指示的時鍾。
後來我有了自己的孩子，在家裏放了很多滴答滴答的時鍾。 有(you)一(yi)次(ci)，我(wo)問(wen)女(nv)兒(er)幾(ji)點(dian)鍾(zhong)，當(dang)時(shi)她(ta)旁(pang)邊(bian)的(de)床(chuang)頭(tou)幾(ji)上(shang)正(zheng)放(fang)著(zhe)電(dian)子(zi)表(biao)，令(ling)人(ren)驚(jing)奇(qi)的(de)是(shi)她(ta)居(ju)然(ran)四(si)周(zhou)環(huan)顧(gu)，最(zui)後(hou)也(ye)沒(mei)有(you)意(yi)識(shi)到(dao)那(na)個(ge)閃(shan)著(zhe)數(shu)字(zi)的(de)東(dong)西(xi)是(shi)時(shi)鍾(zhong)。
9世紀時英語中第一次出現了"clock” 這個詞，但最初這個詞並不表示計時的器具。那時英語中"clock” 仍然是原來的意思，而拉丁語中它早已變成了時鍾的意思。
那時的英語中，"clock" 是鈴鐺的意思。
到1371年，英語中"clock" 的詞義變成了計時的機器。此時 "clock" 在英語中的詞義已經經過了由拉丁語到法語的轉換。
事實上這種計時的工具的報時原理就是在鈴鐺上撞擊發出鏘鏘聲，自然而然得了個和鈴鐺一樣都被叫做"clock"。
我家中有個時鍾足夠稱得上老爺鍾了。
時鍾愛好者們叫它為長盒子鍾。
時鍾不斷的改進，直到有聰明的人用長鍾擺控製每次擺動的距離大小，時鍾的計時功能才變得精確。
因為有長鍾擺，最初的時鍾是放在牆上的擱板上，再在擱板上鑽個洞把長鍾擺穿過去。
zhihourenmenjiaodebayaohuangdezhongbaizangzaihezilihuibijiaomeiguan。worenweizhegefangfakeyijixubaoliu，zheyangbimianlexiaohaihuozhegouweibapengdaozhongbaidaozhishizhongzoudebuzhun。
那隻老爺鍾是在1876年那首紅極一時的歌之後才被稱為老爺鍾的。歌的創作者是亨利沃克，他把盒式掛鍾稱為老爺鍾，而且講述了一個關於鍾的故事：那個盒式掛鍾精準地走了90年，卻因為它主人的死而停止了擺動。